Equating Obesity And The Wear Of Aging

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Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

Excess weight is bad for your long-term health and longevity - all that additional fat works hard to damage your biochemistry over time. The LEF News reports on a study showing that obesity has much the same effect on ability to work and risk of disease as 20 years of additional aging. 20 years! "The study identified specific correlations between obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors, and found that the health risks are the same as if the employees aged 20 years. Obese employees have higher prevalence rates of serious risk factors for cardiovascular disease." At the other end of the scale, it is suspected that some of the health gains resulting from calorie restriction stem from reduced weight and fat.

Link: http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=1512&Section=AGING